2011年 10月 06日 14:42
莫博士:我所認識的喬布斯
史
蒂
夫?喬布斯(Steve
Jobs)是天才,,他對多個產(chǎn)業(yè)和幾十億人的生活都產(chǎn)生了巨大影響,自從他今年八月辭去蘋果公司(Apple)首席執(zhí)行長以來,,有關他的文章已經(jīng)數(shù)不勝
數(shù),。他是一位可與托馬斯?愛迪生(Thomas Edison)或亨利?福特(Henry Ford)比肩的歷史人物。相關報道
而且他很會推銷,。是的,,他真會推銷。 當然,,喬布斯有更具個性化的一面,,而我則有幸對此有所了解,因為在他執(zhí)掌蘋果公司的14年時間里,,我曾與他先后交談過很多,。從以下幾個故事里可以了解我所認識的喬布斯。 喬布斯把電話打到我家 喬 布斯在中途離開蘋果公司以前我并不認識他,。那時我還不報道科技領域,。在喬布斯離開蘋果的那段時間我只與他見過一次面。他在1997年重返蘋果后幾天開始給 我打電話,,而且是在周日晚上,。他連續(xù)四、五個周末在周日夜間往我家里打電話,。作為一名老記者,,我知道他想取悅我,好讓我站在當時舉步維艱的蘋果公司一邊,, 我曾經(jīng)推薦過蘋果的產(chǎn)品,,但喬布斯給我打電話前不久我曾建議讀者們不要買蘋果的產(chǎn)品。 Associated Press
1997年時的喬布斯。
在他第二次打來電話后,,我妻子開始對他在周末打來這種騷擾電話表示不滿。我卻不這樣覺得,。 在后來的電話中,,他有時會抱怨我對蘋果產(chǎn)品的某些評論,或是這些評論的部分內(nèi)容──不過,,說實話,,我對將蘋果公司的大多數(shù)產(chǎn)品推薦給并非“科技達人”的普通消費者感到很放心。 我知道他會抱怨,,因為他每次打電話的開場白都是:你好,,沃爾特。我給你打電話不是要抱怨今天的專欄,,不過如果可以的話,,我有一些評論。 樂觀主義者 我無從知道喬布斯在1997和1998年蘋果最黑暗的日子里怎樣跟他的團隊溝通,,當時蘋果公司岌岌可危,,他不得不向主要競爭對手微軟(Microsoft)求助。他當然有難以相處,、反復無常的一面,,而且我也認為,不管是當時還是后來,,這一面都在蘋果公司內(nèi)外展現(xiàn)出來了,。 但我可以誠實地說,在我跟他的多次談話中,,他表現(xiàn)出的最主要的語氣是樂觀和確定,,對于蘋果公司以及整體上的數(shù)字革命都是如此。就在他告訴我,,他想讓音樂業(yè)同意他出售數(shù)碼歌曲或是與競爭對手角力所面臨的種種困境時,,至少在我面前,他的語調(diào)總是充滿耐心和遠見,。 當 蘋果開設第一家零售專賣店時,,他的這種特質(zhì)得以展現(xiàn),。他組織媒體記者參觀,對專賣店的自豪之情溢于言表,,就像個為第一個孩子而驕傲的父親,。我當時評論說, 肯定只會有寥寥幾家門店,,并質(zhì)疑蘋果對零售有何了解,。他看著我,就像我是個瘋子一樣,,他說,,會有很多很多門店,而且蘋果公司已經(jīng)花了一年時間,,在一個秘密 地點利用模型來調(diào)整門店布局,。我曾打趣式地問喬布斯,他是否曾在從事首席執(zhí)行長的繁重工作之余,,撥冗來拍板產(chǎn)品玻璃的透明度和木質(zhì)材料的顏色等細節(jié)小事。 他說,,當然了,,就是這樣。 揭開蘋果產(chǎn)品的神秘面紗 有 時候,但并不總是,,他會邀請我去看蘋果公司某些尚未對外界公布的重磅產(chǎn)品,。他或許也讓其他記者去看過。這種時候我們會在一間巨大的會議室里碰面,,同時在場 的只有他少數(shù)幾名助手,。喬布斯會堅持用布把這些新產(chǎn)品蓋住(即使是在私下場合),,然后他會像玩雜耍般把幕布揭開,,這時他眼里閃著光,聲音里充滿著激情,。接 著我們會坐下來長時間地談論現(xiàn)在和未來,,以及行業(yè)內(nèi)的逸聞趣事。 我仍然記得他向我展示蘋果公司首款iPod那天的情況,。我對一家電腦公司 居然涉足音樂播放器領域感到吃驚,,而他則解釋說,他將蘋果視為一家數(shù)字產(chǎn)品公司,,而不是一家電腦公司,。他并沒有就此提供更多細節(jié)。喬布斯向我展示蘋果公司 的iPhone手機、iTunes音樂網(wǎng)店時也是這種情況,。后來到iPad平板電腦時,,他是讓我去他家里看尚未展現(xiàn)給世人的iPad的,因為他那時已經(jīng)病 重得不能去辦公室了,。 地獄里的冰水 在第五屆“全數(shù)字化大會”(All Things Digital Conference)上,,喬布斯和他的長期競爭對手──才華橫溢的比爾?蓋茨(Bill Gates)出人意料地同意一同出席,這是他倆第一次同在一個講臺上接受長時間的采訪,。但這次訪談幾乎沒有搞成,。 那天早些時候,在蓋茨到來前,,我在講臺上單獨采訪了喬布斯,,問他作為一名Windows應用程序的主要開發(fā)商有何感想,我之所以這樣問,,是因為那時蘋果iTunes網(wǎng)店出售的應用程序已被安裝在了數(shù)億臺Windows個人電腦中,。 喬布斯語帶嘲諷地說,這就像是給身處地獄的某人送去一杯冰水,。當蓋茨隨后到來并聽到這話時,,他很自然地感到憤怒。在正式開始接受采訪前的見面中,,蓋茨對喬布斯說,,“所以我猜自己是來自地獄的代表?!?br> 喬布斯遞了一瓶冰水給蓋茨,,兩人間的僵局就此打破,隨后的采訪進行得很成功,,兩個人表現(xiàn)得都像氣度非凡的政治家,。采訪結(jié)束時,聽眾們起身長時間鼓掌,,一些人還流出了眼淚,。 那一次散步 喬布斯接受肝臟移植后在帕洛阿爾托的家中休養(yǎng)期間,他邀請我去聊聊,。那次拜訪最終歷時三個小時,,其間我們還一同散步去了附近的一家公園。他堅持要散步,,雖然我擔心他虛弱的身材狀況,。 他解釋說,他每天散步,,而且每天為自己設定一個更遠的目標,,而那一天他的目標就是鄰近的那個公園,。我們邊走邊聊,突然,,他停下腳步,,看上去情況不妙。我懇求他掉頭回家,,解釋說我不懂急救,,而且甚至能想象媒體的大標題:無能記者任由喬布斯倒斃路旁。 但他大笑著拒絕了我的要求,,歇了一會兒后,,繼續(xù)向公園進發(fā)。我們坐在公園里的長椅上,,談起人生,、各自的家庭以及病痛。(幾年前我曾經(jīng)心臟病發(fā)作,。)他告誡我要保持身體健康,。然后我們走了回去。 喬布斯那天沒出事,,我永遠都為此感到欣慰,。但現(xiàn)在他真地離開了,而且如此年輕,,這是全世界的損失。 Mossberg: The Steve Jobs I Knew That Steve Jobs was a genius, a giant influence on multiple industries and billions of lives, has been written many times since he retired as Apple''s chief executive in August. He was a historical figure on the scale of a Thomas Edison or Henry Ford. He did what a CEO should. He hired and inspired great people; managed for the long term, not the quarter or the short-term stock price; made big bets and took big risks. He insisted on the highest product quality and on building things to delight and empower actual users, not intermediaries like corporate IT directors. As he liked to say, he lived at the intersection of technology and liberal arts. And he could sell. Man, he could sell. But there was a more personal side of Steve Jobs, of course, and I was fortunate enough to see a bit of it, because I spent hours in conversation with him, over the 14 years he ran Apple. Here are a few stories that illustrate the man as I knew him. The Phone Calls I never knew Steve when he was first at Apple. I wasn''t covering technology then. And I only met him once between his stints at the company. Within days of his return in 1997 he began calling my house, on Sunday nights, for four or five straight weekends. As a veteran reporter, I knew he wanted to flatter me, to get me on the side of a teetering company whose products I had once recommended, but had recently advised readers to avoid. Yet there was more to the calls than that. They turned into marathon, 90-minute, wide-ranging, off-the-record discussions that revealed to me the stunning breadth of the man. One minute he''d be talking about sweeping ideas for the digital revolution. The next about why Apple''s current products were awful, and how a color, or angle, or curve, or icon was embarrassing. After the second such call, my wife became annoyed at the intrusion he was making in our weekend. I wasn''t. Later, he''d sometimes call to complain about some reviews, or parts of reviews -- though, in truth, I felt very comfortable recommending most of his products for the average, non-techie consumers. I knew he would be complaining because he''d start every call by saying ''Hi, Walt. I''m not calling to complain about today''s column, but I have some comments, if that''s okay.'' The Optimist I have no way of knowing how Steve talked to his team during Apple''s darkest days in 1997 and 1998, when the company was on the brink and he was forced to turn to archrival Microsoft for a rescue. He certainly had a nasty, mercurial side to him, and I expect that, then and later, it emerged inside and outside the company But I can honestly say that, in my many conversations with him, the dominant tone he struck was optimism and certainty, both for Apple and for the digital revolution as a whole. Even when he was telling me about his struggles to get the music industry to let him sell digital songs, or griping about competitors, at least in my presence, his tone was always marked by patience and a long-term view. This quality was on display when Apple opened its first retail store. He conducted a press tour for journalists, as proud of the store as a father is of his first child. I commented that, surely, there''d only be a few stores, and asked what Apple knew about retailing. He looked at me like I was crazy, said there''d be many, many stores, and that the company had spent a year tweaking the layout of the stores, using a mockup at a secret location.***I teased him by asking if he, personally, despite his hard duties as CEO, had approved tiny details like the translucency of the glass and the color of the wood. He said he had, of course. The Product Unveilings Sometimes, not always, he''d invite me in to see certain big products before he unveiled them to the world. He may have done the same with other journalists. We''d meet in a giant boardroom, with just a few of his aides present, and he''d insist─even in private─ on covering the new gadgets with cloths and then uncovering them like the showman he was, a gleam in his eye and passion in his voice. We''d then often sit down for a long, long discussion of the present, the future, and industry gossip. I still remember the day he showed me the first iPod. I was amazed that a computer company would branch off into music players, but he explained, without giving any specifics away, that he saw Apple as a digital products company, not a computer company. It was the same with the iPhone, the iTunes music store, and later the iPad, which he asked me to his home to see, because he was too ill at the time to go to the office. Ice Water in Hell For our fifth All Things Digital Conference, both Steve and his longtime rival, the brilliant Bill Gates, surprisingly agreed to a joint appearance, their first extended onstage joint interview ever. But it almost got derailed. Earlier in the day, before Gates arrived, I did a solo onstage interview with Jobs, and asked him what it was like to be a major Windows developer, since Apple''s iTunes program was by then installed on hundreds of millions of Windows PCs. He quipped: ''It''s like giving a glass of ice water to someone in Hell.'' When Gates later arrived and heard about the comment, he was, naturally, enraged. In a pre-interview meeting, Gates said to Jobs ''so I guess I''m the representative from hell.'' Jobs merely handed Gates a cold bottle of water. The tension was broken, and the interview was a triumph, with both men acting like statesmen. When it was over, the audience rose in a standing ovation, some of them in tears. The Walk After his liver transplant, while he was recuperating at home in Palo Alto, Steve invited me to catch up. It turned into a three-hour visit, punctuated by a walk to a nearby park that he insisted we take, despite my nervousness about his frail condition. He explained that he walked each day, and that each day he set a farther goal for himself, and that, today, the neighborhood park was his goal. As we were walking and talking, he suddenly stopped, not looking well. I begged him to return to the house, noting that I didn''t know CPR and could visualize the headline: ''Helpless reporter lets Steve Jobs die on the sidewalk.'' But he laughed, and refused, and, after a pause, kept heading for the park. We sat on a bench there, talking about life, our families, and our respective illnesses. (I had had a heart attack some years earlier.) He lectured me about staying healthy. And then we walked back. Steve Jobs didn''t die that day, to my everlasting relief. But now he really is gone, much too young, and it is the world''s loss. Walter S. Mossberg 蘋果產(chǎn)品發(fā)展史2011 年 07 月 07 日 11:47:41
在過去30多年里,,蘋果公司的產(chǎn)品中既有傳奇之作也有遺憾敗筆,。本圖集回顧了蘋果產(chǎn)品的發(fā)展歷程。
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